J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Hesperides (1) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study for 'The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides' 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for 'The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides'’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Study for ‘The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides’ 1805
D05770
Turner Bequest XCIII 3
Pen and ink and black chalk on white wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 171 x 262 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘3’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XCIII 3’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
See note to folio 1 verso of the sketchbook (D05767) for its various sketches and studies related to The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides exhibited at the British Institution in 1806 (Tate N00477).1 In the case of this rough composition study, Finberg thought the background, which is shaded in black chalk, suggestive of the picture but suspected ‘the figures point to another subject, – possibly one of the labours of Hercules’. Hill, while acknowledging that the sketch seems ‘more dramatic’ than the picture, rightly observes that ‘all the main elements are present, even down to the fallen [tree] trunk in the right foreground’. He also notes the likely derivation from Alpine scenery which Turner had seen in 1802, a connection that is pronounced in the picture. See also folio 30 (D05816) for a sketch of landscape background, again Alpine in character and probably also related to the picture.

David Blayney Brown
October 2007

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.44–6 no.57 (pl.67).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Study for ‘The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides’ 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2007, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-study-for-the-goddess-of-discord-choosing-the-apple-of-r1129991, accessed 24 April 2024.